Richard Mellon Scaife

Richard Mellon Scaife is a billionaire contributor to the Republican Party and right-wing think tanks, one of the most influential men behind the right wing today. Scaife has helped establish their biggest institutions and supported some of their most radical ideas.

Wealth
"With $1.2 billion, Scaife, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, is No. 283 on the 2005 Forbes 400."

Foundations
Scaife is a major funding source of right-wing causes through the Scaife Foundations. He controls the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Carthage Foundation, and the Alleghany Foundation. Until 2001, he also controlled the Scaife Family Foundation, which is now controlled by his son and daughter.

Right-wing organizations funded
People for the American Way estimates that the Scaife Foundations have channeled in excess of $340 million to right-wing groups over the last thirty years, more than any other individual.

Among the right-wing organizations substantially funded by Scaife are the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, Judicial Watch, and Cato Institute.

(See also "Affiliations" section below.)

Media ownership
Scaife owns and publishes the magazine American Spectator and newspaper the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, which is home of global warming skeptic Bill Steigerwald (columnist).

Scaife owned the Sacramento Union from 1977 to 1989.

Scaife v. journalism
Scaife has been criticized by sections in the media for attempting to corrupt the practice of journalism and dilute it with a very specific agenda.

Support for attacks
Scaife has a long history of supporting attacks on organizations and institutions which refuse to kowtow to right-wing interests.

Westmoreland libel suit against CBS
In 1985, Scaife reportedly financed most of retired Gen. William Westmoreland's libel suit against CBS over a documentary, "The Uncounted Enemy". This documentary claimed that Westmoreland deliberately underestimated enemy troop strength in Vietnam (Morning Call, (Allentown, PA), March 1, 1985, Westmoreland Suit backed by Mellon Heir, Associated Press).

Arkansas Project against Clinton
Scaife was a primary source of money used to fund attacks against Bill Clinton during the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky eras of his presidency. A Scaife-funded working group within his American Spectator publication called the "Arkansas Project," had the specific aim of locating or creating dirt on the Clintons in order to smear them, in hopes of removing Clinton from office.

Buying up books to influence bestseller lists
Scaife has been known to purchase mass quantities of conservative books (especially those published by Regnery Press) to push them up the bestseller lists.

Affiliations
(are these affiliations proper, or groups that Scaife, through his foundations, has funded?)
 * Atlas Economic Research Foundation
 * American Enterprise Institute
 * American Spectator Educational Foundation, publisher of American Spectator Magazine
 * Cato Institute
 * Center for the Study of Popular Culture
 * Citizens for Honest Government
 * Federalist Society
 * Federation for American Immigration Reform
 * Free Congress Foundation
 * Foreign Policy Research Institute
 * Hoover Institution
 * Hudson Institute
 * Independent Women's Forum
 * Institute for Justice
 * Intercollegiate Studies Institute
 * Judicial Watch
 * Landmark Legal Foundation
 * Media Research Center
 * Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
 * National Association of Scholars
 * National Legal and Policy Center
 * National Taxpayers Union Foundation
 * NewsMax.com
 * Pacific Legal Foundation
 * Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy
 * Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty
 * Rutherford Institute
 * Southeastern Legal Foundation, Inc.
 * Washington Legal Foundation

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Scaife Foundations
 * Scaife Family Foundation
 * Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
 * Cato Institute
 * National Legal and Policy Center
 * Gulf Oil
 * Oil industry

External resources

 * RightWeb profile on Scaife, accessed 2011-04-24
 * (Probably many of the profiles below should be moved here.)

External articles

 * John Aravosis, "Super-rich Republican financier, Mellon Scaife's, messy messy divorce papers now online," AMERICAblog, September 24, 2007.
 * Steve Benen, "Scaife, sex, scandal, and schadenfreude," The Carpetbagger Report, October 23, 2007.
 * David Segal, "Low Road to Splitsville - Right-Wing Publisher's Breakup Is Super-Rich In Tawdry Details", Washington Post, October 22, 2007; C01.
 * Karen Rothmyer, The man behind the mask,Salon, April 7, 1998

Profiles

 * Brooks Jackson, "Who Is Richard Mellon Scaife?: He's very rich and very partisan, but is he behind an anti-Clinton conspiracy?" CNN, April 27, 1998.
 * People For the American Way, Richard M. Scaife, PFAW undated, accessed October 2005.
 * Robert G. Kaiser and Ira Chinoy, "Scaife: Funding Father of the Right," Washington Post, May 2, 1999; Page A1.
 * Robert G. Kaiser, "Money, Family Name Shaped Scaife," Washington Post, May 3, 1999; Page A1.
 * Robert G. Kaiser, "Money, Family Name Shaped Scaife," Washington Post, May 3, 1999; Page A1.